Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is an intensive treatment program that integrates a range of services and therapeutic activities, including counselling, behavioural treatment, social and community living skills, relapse prevention and recreational activities. This type of treatment is not available for people seeking treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use. See glossary for further information on Rehabilitation.
In 2020–21, for a clients’ own alcohol or drug use:
- one in 17 (6.2% or 13,913) treatment episodes included rehabilitation as the main treatment type
- the most common principal drugs of concern were alcohol (40%) or amphetamines (38%) (Tables Trt.3, Trt.47).
Client profile
In 2020–21, for clients whose main treatment was rehabilitation:
- 2 in 3 (63%) people were male, and 28% of people identified as Indigenous Australians
- over 1 in 3 people were aged 30–39 (33%), followed by people aged 20–29 (27%), and 40–49 (23%) (tables SC.18–20).
Treatment profile
Among rehabilitation treatment episodes for a client’s own alcohol or drug use:
- nearly 2 in 5 (37%) episodes lasted 1–3 months, while a further 31% lasted between 2-29 days in 2020–21
- over the 10-year period to 2020–21, the duration of episodes of rehabilitation remained relatively stable, except for changes in the proportion of episodes that lasted 2 to 29 days (from 35% in 2011–12, dropping to 29% in 2019–20, then increasing to 31% in 2020–21) (Table Trt.52)
- median treatment duration for own alcohol or drug use increased between 2011–12 and 2014–15 from 44 days to a peak of 57 days before dropping to 43 days in 2020–21 (Table OV.11) .